Dion Waiters Refuses to Come Off the Bench

Dion Waiters has never been one to lack confidence or hold his tongue for that matter.

Waiters’ efficiency is down a little bit this season after career-highs in a contract year for the Heat in 2016-17 (shocker) and there is some chatter whether the team would be better suited bringing him off the bench.

Waiters isn’t having that.

Here is what he told Tom D’Angelo of the Palm Beach Post:

“I’m a starter in this league, man, that’s who I am. We’re going to nip that in the bud right now. I’m not coming off no bench.”

The foolish part about all of this is while it is debatable whether this would be the best move for the Heat, it likely wouldn’t mean any less of a role in totality, just a different role. He would get to be the sole ball handler and shot creator for the second unit in more of his minutes instead of sharing that role with Goran Dragic.

This sort of arrogance and cockiness is partially what makes Waiters and anyone of his breed an effective NBA player (at times) but it is also the reason he was jettisoned out of Cleveland almost immediately after LeBron James came back and the reason Waiters will never be anything more than a guy who can heat up and give you an offensive boost on some nights while hurting your chemistry behind the scenes.

If Dwyane Wade can have the humility to embrace a bench role with the Cavaliers than Waiters, a homeless man’s version of Wade in his prime, should assuredly be okay with it.

Getting Hassan Whiteside back will help, but at 12-13 it seems to be clear that the Heat are not the 10-31 team from the first half of last season and they aren’t the 31-10 team from the second half of last season, they are somewhere in between.

Not quite worth going over the salary cap to lock-down a middling roster is it?